AN: I don't own Star Wars, as everyone knows. This fic takes place in the AU I share with my friend RensKnight. In this universe, Snoke is driven out of Ben's mind when he's a child and he grows up to be a Jedi doctor. Ben is married to my OC Ara, a non-Force-sensitive mechanic (Rey still exists, but she's Ben's cousin, so no romantic feelings in this 'verse) and they have a daughter named Hanna. There are some references in here to my other fic "The Pull to the Dark," but you don't need to have read that fic to understand this one.
"Advice"
By EsmeAmelia
Han was working on the Falcon when his comm beeped. His head jolted up, bumping on the control panel and drawing a swear from his lips as he fumbled into the pilot's seat and pulled his comm out of his pocket, prepared to turn it off if it turned out to be a holomarketer, but once he saw it was his son's frequency, he placed the comm on the control panel and activated it. His daughter-in-law Ara's hologram popped out, her black curly hair disheveled as if she'd just gotten out of bed.
"Hey Ara," said Han. "How's the family?"
"Fine," said Ara. "Ben's at work, but . . . ah, something's going on with Hanna."
Han's heart thumped, his mind going through a hundred things that could happen to his nine-month-old granddaughter, not the least of which being the dark sider Snoke trying to get her again. "What's goin' on?" he exclaimed, not caring if he sounded panicked. "What's wrong with her?"
Ara held up her hand. "She's fine, she's fine. She's a very happy baby as far as I can tell, it's just . . ."
"What? Spit it out!"
Ara let out a long sigh, her eyes lowering as if she were ashamed to look her father-in-law in the eye. "She's using the Force."
Han found himself gulping, clenching his hands into fists in hopes that they wouldn't start shaking. "Well, what'd she do?"
Ara sighed again. "I was playing with her on the floor. She was giggling all cute as I rolled a ball to her, but then . . . all of a sudden the ball went flying over her head and landed in her lap." Finally she looked up at him, her sky-blue eyes bulged. "She laughed and clapped her hands as if she thought she'd done something amazing. I was gonna call Ben about it, but then I thought I should talk to you first - I mean, you're a non-Force-sensitive parent with a Force-sensitive kid too." Her teeth brushed over her lower lip. "Did Ben use the Force when he was a baby?"
Han blew a long gush of air out of his mouth. "Yeah. I mean, in addition to him waking up screaming several times every night, he'd make stuff fly around like that when he was about Hanna's age."
"Is there something we should do about it?"
"Dunno," said Han. "The good news is that when she's around three she'll stop makin' stuff fly around by accident." He gave a feeble grin. "Then she'll start makin' stuff fly around on purpose."
"Han, I'm being serious here."
"So am I. I got a couple of black eyes from Ben shooting baby toys at me."
"Well what did you do?"
Han sighed. "Leia and me told him it wasn't nice to throw stuff at Daddy, but, ya know, when do babies ever do what they're told? He grew out of it when he was a toddler - 'cept when he was angry, then . . ."
He trailed off, trying not to think of memories of Ben's powers going out of control - lamps falling off tables and breaking, toys ramming against the walls, Ben breaking down crying afterwards . . .
How Snoke tried to possess his body when he was six . . .
"I'm sorry," said Ara. "I didn't want to bring up bad memories."
"Not your fault," said Han, running his hand over his eyes as he tried to get his breath under control. "Anyway, probably the best thing you can do is wait for her to grow outta this stage and watch out for flyin' baby toys in the meantime."
Ara groaned. "I don't get it. Leia and Luke grew up not knowing they were Force-sensitive - they didn't make stuff fly around when they were babies!"
"How do you know they didn't? Maybe they did and their respective guardians just never told 'em about it cause it was s'posed to be all secret. Maybe their powers settled down as they got older and went kinda dormant cause they weren't bein' trained. I mean, Ben grew up always knowin' he was Force-sensitive, so it was different for him." He gave another feeble grin. "I mean, back in the day of the old Jedi, it would've been pretty difficult to give every kid in the Republic a midichlorian test, so probably a lotta babies showed raw Force power."
"Probably," said Ara, once more lowering her eyes. "Luke will probably want to train Hanna when she's old enough, won't he?"
Han's mouth rumpled. "That's your decision to make - and hers - not his. Sides, speakin' from experience, stayin' with your kid at the Temple for a decade or so ain't that bad."
"Are you suggesting that I go live on the Temple World with her like you did with Ben?"
"I'm just sayin' it's an option," said Han, "but right now you don't have to worry about that."
"I know, I know. I just . . . this is making me feel a bit helpless, you know? I'm her mom - I'm supposed to understand everything she's going through, but how can I understand it when I don't have the Force?" She blinked at her father-in-law. "Did you ever feel helpless like this with Ben?"
"You got no idea there."
"I mean, Snoke tried to get her in utero and I couldn't feel it! If I were Force-sensitive, maybe I would have felt something wrong before . . ."
Han wished he knew what to say - he also wished he could stop his stomach from twisting as if he'd eaten something bad. Though they had been able to drive Snoke's influence away from Hanna's mind before she was born, it had been a close battle and he didn't want to think of what might have happened to his granddaughter if they had failed.
"It's okay to be scared," he finally said. "Hell knows how much the Force scares me. There's stuff about the Force that you and me can't ever understand, but it doesn't make us helpless." He looked into her eyes. "Force-sensitive or not, you're still Hanna's mom. You hug her and kiss her and rock her to sleep and she's always gonna associate you with love. Who knows, maybe someday she'll even name her kid after you."
That actually got Ara laughing. "Maybe."
"Speakin' of which, can I see my granddaughter so long as we're talkin'?"
"Sure. I'll go get her." Her hologram flickered out for a few seconds and then returned holding her little daughter. "Look Hanna, there's Grandpa!"
Hanna squealed, babbling happily as if saying hello, her black curls bouncing.
"Hey there, sweetie!" Han said in a singsong voice, waving at his granddaughter. "Your mommy says you used the Force today - Grandpa's proud of you!"
Ara smiled at her daughter, kissing her little forehead. "Mommy's proud of you too. Always."
THE END